We Have Our Dragons
by wikelia
Summary: As Hiccup and Astrid are flying, he lets her in on a nagging fear he's been having lately. Drabble written for Celebrate HTTYD Week on Tumblr.
As she set down the chicken basket, Astrid brushed her bangs out of her face. It was hot on Berk, and she was sweaty. Stormfly seemed to sense her pain as she nuzzled up against her, brushing her face as though asking for attention.

"Don't you play that game with me, girl," she said in half-amused, half-stern tone. "I know fully well that you're just happy I brought you chicken today."

Stormfly payed no attention to what her rider said, and simply continued to affectionately nuzzle her head into Astrid's shoulder. The blonde girl laughed.

"Astrid, there you are!"

Valka was standing at the doorway, a smile on her lips as she saw the interaction between girl and dragon. "Hiccup's looking for you. Said you two were going flying for a bit."

Astrid's hand flew to her forehead. "I completely forgot! And it was my idea! Stormfly, quick, eat up!"

Her future-mother-in-law laughed. "He told me you held an axe to his throat until he agreed to take a break this morning."

"I had to. Two days ago, he had dark bags under his eyes and was stumbling around as though he was getting used to his peg leg again."

"I completely agree," Valka said, before adding, "He gets that from Stoick, y'know. Over-workers, the whole lot of Haddocks."

"Aren't you a Haddock, Valka?" asked Astrid, giggling as she scratched Stormfly, who was eating as if there was no tomorrow.

"Aye. And you're a future Haddock. When do you think he's gonna propose?"

Astrid turned red, and started stammering, "I , well, I don't think -"

It was extremely weird to talk about her boyfriend with her boyfriend's mom, no matter how close they had become over the past few months.

"Ah, well, I suppose I'll just have to wait for grandchildren, won't I?"

Ducking her head to avoid being seen, Astrid hastily said, "I think we should be going - Stormfly's done, I -"

"I'm just teasing, dear," the elder woman said, laughing again. "Now go fly. And make sure he doesn't find something else to stress himself about."

"I'll make sure. More importantly, my axe will make sure."

* * *

"Oh, hey Astrid, nice to see you, milady, for the thing you planned and decided to show up late to. How do you manage with all these fellows inviting you to balls and celebrations and crownings, I mean, you're obviously very busy, and that is why you're late to your own idea - why are you looking unimpressed?"

She raised an eye. "Your sarcasm needs work."

"Does not! My sarcasm is...is…"

"Awful," she supplied, "Miserable. Horrible. Needy. Shall I go on?"

Hiccup crossed his arms and stuck out his tongue at his girlfriend. "You're mean."

"That's mature, babe," she said as she mounted Stormfly.

"Hey, bud, tell her she's mean."

"Toothless won't do that," Astrid said smugly, "He likes me too much."

Hiccup glanced at Toothless, with a tell-her-I'm-right face, but was responded with his dragon merely giving him a get-on-my-back-what-the-heck-are-you-waiting-for face.

"You're all mean. I banish everyone."

"You can't banish us!"

"Can too. I'm the Chief, milady. I make the rules."

"Here's a rule," the Valkyrie offered, "Get on Toothless before I punch your face."

His eyes widened, and very quickly he complied, getting on his Night Fury, while grumbling, "The women of this village are way too demanding."

The riders rose into the air, and went higher and higher, until the village below seemed nothing more than a few boxes. Well, really big boxes.

It really was a perfect day for riding. Obviously, it was colder up here than on the ground, which was a relief to Astrid, because she had been melting down there. Neither of them suggested a race, because this was just smoothly gliding weather. Neither of them spoke either.

The silence was nice. She knew he needed it with everything that had been going on lately. It was hard enough becoming the chief anyway, but to become the chief right after a crisis was downright terrifying. And extremely exhausting.

"Hey, Ast?"

She hummed to show she was listening, and he went on, "I was thinking, you know...how...how-"

Curiously, Astrid flew right next to him. "Thinking what?"

"Just...how lucky we are to have the dragons."

"I know," she said, rubbing her Nadder's neck, "I can't imagine life without Stormfly, I really can't."

"I can."

"What?"

The auburn-haired boy bit his lip. "I can. I can imagine a world without dragons. I-I can't not imagine a world without Toothless, and Stormfly, and Cloudjumper."

He took a deep breath. "It scares me, Astrid.

"It scares me how close we were to losing them. Losing all of them to Drago."

"But we didn't, Hiccup," she reminded him gently, "They're still here. With us."

"And what would have happened if they weren't, Astrid?" Hiccup suddenly shouted, as though he was angry.

Not angry at her.

Angry at himself.

"What would have happened if I hadn't gotten to Toothless in time, or if I hadn't freed him from the Bewilderbeast's grip at all? Then...then, Drago would've continued to take more and more dragons, and take over more people, and then he'd kill them, Ast. He'd kill every single dragon, whether they helped him or not. And then we'd be living in a world without dragons, without being able to ride and race and fly. We'd be stuck on the ground. Forever."

Astrid was shocked into silence. The whole point of this ride had been to release his stress, and in a way, by talking to her, he was doing that. But first off, she hadn't expected he'd be stressed out about this. And second off, she wasn't sure what to say except the obvious.

"We'd never let that happen, Hiccup. You know that. No, listen!" she continued urgently, because he was turning his head in a downcast manner, "How long had we been killing the dragons? 300 years, Hiccup. And yet, the population is as full as ever. They are not going to go extinct, as long as we have something to say about it. What was that you said, the first time you made a speech as chief? 'We are the voice of peace, and bit by bit, we will change this world.' What happened to that, Hic? Was it just something to calm the people down?"

"Maybe it was!" he snapped back, "I was feeling good, we had just beaten Drago, and -"

"Exactly, babe! We had just beaten Drago! Who, I remind you, was trying to take our dragons! And did we let that happen? No! We beat him. And we'll win the next time someone wants to take our dragons, too, if it even happens again! No one is going to take our dragons away from us!"

She looked at Stormfly, who in turn was glancing upwards at her as well. Astrid placed a gentle hand on her snout. "No one," she repeated.

Silence again.

Now this silence, the blonde didn't like. It either meant he was cross, or just being stubborn. Of course, it could also mean he was seriously contemplating what she had just said, and that would be a miracle, because she had literally spewed out whatever came to mind.

He didn't say anything.

"Hiccup?"

Nothing.

"Hic, come on, talk to me. Look, Toothless is worried too."

Indeed, the black dragon was was cooing concernedly at his rider, who just kept flying with a set expression.

"Hic?"

Finally, he spoke. "Wanna see me test out Dragon Fly 82?"

"What?"

"My flight suit," he clarified, "Wanna see me test it out? I've made some improvements."

"You wanna do this now?"

"What's wrong with now?" he asked, grinning despite everything he had just said.

"Hiccup," Astrid sighed, "I don't want you to hide this from me."

"I'm not hiding anything," he responded resolutely.

"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, you are ignoring your stress, and that's not going to make it go away, you know! I want you to talk to me!"

"I thought the whole point of this flight was to de-stress me."

"Talking is de-stressing. It'll help you."

"I'm really absolutely sure it won't"

"Hiccup."

"Astrid."

She groaned out loud, wanting to whack the living yak dung out of him for being so stubborn. "Hiccup, you talk to me, or, or…"

"Or what, milady?" the boy asked, "Will you break up with me?"

Oh, she wanted to smack that cheeky grin off the stupid boy's face.

"Or," she began in a regal manner, "I will tell Valka what you've been thinking."

The threat was real, and he knew it. He stared at her, open-mouthed. She rewarded him with a cold glare.

"That's not...that's completely unfair, y'know," he muttered.

"I'm quite aware. Now start talking."

She regretted the words the instant they came out, for they gave him another way to procrastinate. He began to talk in a horrible impression of her.

"Are you training with someone? It better not invo- Hey!"

"Good girl," she praised, "shoot the spines again if he continues to act like a douche."

"I am not-"

"Hic, I swear to Thor, if you don't stop changing the subject, Stormfly's spines will be the least of your worries."

Hiccup let out a disgruntled sigh. "I - I agree with everything you said, Ast. About us protecting them. But...but the fear won't go away. It never does."

"It helps to let people know you're scared."

He shook his head. "What are the people gonna think of a chief who's so scared of something so...impossible?"

"There is no such thing as impossible. Only improbable. Which isn't the best thing in this matter, but you know what I mean." It probably wasn't a good idea to tell him there was a small chance of the dragons disappearing, even if it was the absolute smallest chance ever. "Besides, you don't have to tell the entire village, Hiccup. You could tell...your mom. Me. The other riders."

"They would -"

"They wouldn't laugh. Don't you dare say they would laugh." There was an edge in her voice. "You know they wouldn't."

"I know that, Ast," he reassured, "I was going to say that they would think I was worrying for no reason, like you."

"I don't think you're worrying for no reason. Just...no good reason."

"I think that too, to be honest," he mumbled.

There were few things that could tug at her. Her family honour after the incident with Uncle Finn. That time she had lost Stormfly to the dragon hunters. When Stoick had died in the battle with Drago.

But Hiccup when he was upset, that was enough to tug on anyone's gut. He had this lost puppy look, and he made you feel guilty without trying to, even if you hadn't done anything to him.

"My point is," she said softly, "don't be too hard on yourself. You can talk to us. Talk to Toothless. He's there with you all the time, he cares about you so much, and he is living proof that the dragons would never leave us. Your bond...do you know how strong your bond with him is, Hic?"

He smiled a little. "Yeah, I do. He's my best friend."

"Exactly, and you should keep in mind that nothing can break a bond like that. You hear me? Nothing."

There was another long silence, but this one was different. This time, it wasn't as if she was being punished, this was more of a...wistful silence. He was actually taking what she said into account.

"I - the fear isn't going to go away overnight, Ast," he said, presumably to stop her from getting excited, "But, I guess I can try."

Astrid smiled. "Good. You're an absolute dork, you know that, right?"

He flew above her, went upside down, and gave her a quick peck on the lips. "I do know that, milady. You never fail to remind me of it."

As they flew on, her grip on Stormfly tightened ever so slightly.


End file.
